Ken Mattingly

April 2014 (This event has already taken place)

When Space Lectures embarked on their quest to bring pioneering astronauts to Pontefract, Charlie Duke was quoted as saying…”You’ll never get Ken Mattingly!” Fast forward 9 years and who did we have visiting… the man himself.

Travelling with his wife Kathleen, Ken was sharp, erudite, eloquent and humble in equal measure. An infrequent public speaker Ken explained “I don’t usually do these kind of events as they are often corporate funded and companies and institutions usually want something from me. I’m really enjoying myself because these folks are just interested in space and don’t have an agenda.”

Ken brought with him a refreshing insight in to Apollo capturing in his own inimitable style what it “really” felt like to fly to the moon.

#OTD John Glenn was strapped inside the spacecraft he named Friendship 7 which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 14. During the four-hour, 55-minute flight he became the first American to orbit Earth.